Step 29: Hey, thanks for checking out my beaver!

Step 1: Purchase a beaver of your very own

There are lots of old taxidermy mounts out there - garage sales, antique stores, ebay are all good sources for older pieces. You'll probably want a high quality mount since you'll be removing the bulk of the internal structure, so better quality (ie not falling apart) probably means stronger.

Step 2: Purchase computer components

Purchase your computer components. You'll want to do this before you start so that you have a general idea of how much room you'll need to create inside the beaver, and what sort of slots you'll need to cut for specific components. For a basic machine, you'll need a motherboard, a hard drive, some ram, cd or dvd drive, a fan and a power supply.

Step 3: Purchase a motherboard

There are a variety of boards you can choose from. I went with a MiniITX board because of size - it's 17cm x 17cm versus the much larger standard motherboards. If you have a HUGE beaver, it would be possible to install a standard board, but you really need to make sure that it will fit. Another plus with the MiniITX board is that it included an external power supply, which means a good bulk of the heat will not be inside the beaver. Good news, trust me.

I have stumbled across this beaver several times on different pages. I do not think I had seen it here before ever though I am sure it was. But now that I see it here and I know I can comment directly to the artist that did it I thought I better comment. Would I have a beaver computer on my desk? No. However I love the idea. This is ultimate recycling!!

BTW, to those of you who are appalled by this I'd like to point out that step 1 is not "Find and kill a beaver".. And its no more disrespectful than the way nature deals with carcasses personally.. In nature a dead beaver is pretty much a meal and a toy to another animal.. Animals LOVE defiling the carcasses of other animals, but they like it even more when the critter is still alive for an added challenge..

Decency is relative. Do you eat meat? You may well not be aware of the tortuous treatment animals undergo (especially kosher animals) before they're slaughtered. Ever seen animals in the wild? They kill ceaselessly to survive. A simple piece of taxidermy is quite tame; quite 'decent'.

I want to cover my entire case with beaver skin so that my hardware will always be inside a nice, warm beaver, and I'll never have to worry about my hardware getting blue or red and irritated. I will also be safe if the beaver gets wet.

I should make my own computer. If i could do something for the case like this it would save a couple bucks. Then i could fully switch to linux, and the whole shebang. Any good links for that sort of thing?